Hacker Camp Shenzhen 6 time to party! email

March 07, 2016, 07:41:24 am

Hey Hacker Camper!

Hacker Camp Shenzhen is about 2 weeks away! It's going to be epic, we can't wait to have you here!

By now you should have your Chinese visa, and a hotel reservation at City Inn/Gold Met or another hotel nearby. If not, please get started on that now. We don't recommend you try to get a visa at the boarder as the rules change daily.

Optional days

Optional: Tuesday March 22 - Dinner at Grill Meat Place (no, Angelo, it is not Korean BBQ)
Optional: Wednesday March 23 - Tour of Dongmen market & sign street, copy mall early arrival dinner at Japanese Secret Location

If you get here early (some people are already here!) there are plenty of people in the neighborhood exploring the markets, hacking stuff, and partying at night. The WeChat group is the best way to see what's happening, remember to install WeChat before you leave home because many app stores are blocked in China.

The Shenzhen tour on Wednesday will start at 12:00 from the City Inn steps.

Prime Camp

Thursday March 24 - How to survive Shenzhen, Huaqianbei tour, Szechuan Dinner
Friday March 25 - Factory tours, Hot Pot dinner
Saturday March 26 - Tour of Yihua and Depu markets, Hacker shaokao

On the first day we'll meet at the City Inn steps at 12:00 and walk to a nearby restaurant for lunch. After an overview of Shenzhen and the markets, we'll head out for a tour of Huaqiangbei. Friday and Saturday are interchangeable, depending on the final arrangements with factories.

Market vendors are squeamish about photos of grey market parts. Please DO NOT bring "big honking SLR cameras to the market" (Bunnie Huang, 2013).

Here's a mobile friendly map of Huaqiangbei that you can comment on:
http://dev.dangerousprototypes.com/geek ... uaqiangbei

Here's the Hacker Camp vol 6. schedule and map, these will be available at the City Inn reception:
http://dev.dangerousprototypes.com/file ... utline.pdf
http://dev.dangerousprototypes.com/file ... utline.pdf

Please Don't Take Unlicensed Taxis

Head for the marked taxi area and only get in taxis that are clearly marked. Unless you speak Chinese and know how to bargain, don't get into some guy's unmarked van. Unmarked/unlicensed taxis will charge you 20x-40x the official price and we will mock you extensively for it.

More on how to get to Shenzhen from the airport here:
http://dangerousprototypes.com/docs/Visit_Shenzhen

The Internet Sucks. Hard.

The internet connection to the outside world is largely unusable in China at the moment. Currently NO VPNs are working in China. I had to go to Hong Kong to send this email. Supposedly this will improve after The Party finishes a major committee meeting on the 14th of March, however expect the internet to be FUBAR during your whole trip.

The internet within China is fabulous. Take this opportunity to get into the China app ecosystem. Download Baidu Translate (in English!) instead of Google Translate, it works great. Get Baidu Maps instead of Google Maps. Try the Taobao app, translate screenshots in Baidu Translate. Bring a burner phone if you're concerned about Chinese app security.

Please avoid boring VPN discussions

It's tempting to wax about VPNs, cantenna connections to Hong Kong, WiMax, etc, etc. However, we are guests in China and it's tacky and gauche to talk about circumventing our host's house rules.

SIM Cards

To help avoid the VPN discussion we are supplying everyone with a Hong Kong cross-boarder SIM. These SIMs are sold by the state-owned telecom's Hong Kong subsidiary. All traffic is routed through Hong Kong and websites are not blocked. It's not a magic bullet, but it's better than nothing. Hopefully they will be at City Inn reception for pickup by March 20th.

WeChat

Install WeChat and then add "elvis217", Jin will then add you to the group chat. WeChat has some spam algorithm that may ask new users to register a bank card. If this happens just let Jin know and we will kick some old people out so you can join.

Looking forward to seeing you in Shenzhen!

Ian